So I talked a bit about what I wanted to do and have in my game that I'm working on in the MagCast yesterday. As I had stated, I want my game to be very centered on the science and magic of the world. Because of this there will be a lot of things that I hope make my game a little more unique than most. So I will list below features that I want to implement and things that I will implement.


Synthesis
Synthesis is the ability to create items (in most cases equipment for your characters) through the use of raw materials. I could do this with events only, but I found a script before for VX (which should be available for VX Ace) that will allow for synthesis, and also for different characters to be able to synthesize different things. So, for example, my main character Kylie is mainly for creating equipment for the party to equip. So far I'm only thinking of doing all armor types. How I'm going to do the weapons might be different or I will just do it the same way, but keep the weapon names the same. That is still decided on because of plot purposes. Also, her brother is an engineer who will be able to create tools for himself that will allow him to cast many different spells, healing and attack. Raw materials for synthesizing will by and large be not super difficult to come across. Dray used FF8 as and example for how synthesizing can go wrong, and I agree. Drops will come from enemies and can be found around in the world.

Environmental Effects
A big thing that you rarely see done in games is environments having different effects on on your team. One thing I thought about while creating the science of my world is to create a world where different locations do different things to your team. One town in the game, the first town, is known for it's natural healing ability, which is why people come to it when they feel sick or have more dangerous ailments. So because of that, there will be a parallel process event in place that will heal a certain amount of HP and clear all status effects every few seconds. I will also implement these effects in battle where needed, and it will benefit you and your enemies. There will be other locations in the world where there will be different environments that will do different things to your characters. Some may lower LP (Life Points), AP (Aether Points), add status effects at random, or even lower your stats, or perhaps buff them. The environment around you will always have an effect on you, whether positive or negative. Don't forget that these things can effect the enemies, too.

Status Effects
You may be wondering why status effects is listed here, as every RPG has them. Well, most RPGs have status effects that are inflicted upon you, but do no damage or effect of note, or the enemies are almost never affected by it. For this game, I want to change that and make status effects more prominent and mean something. This is a sciency, magical world and all the particles that make up the world have effect on it, so why not make status effects a bigger player? Plus, it's nice to know you have to use status healing items or magic. One character will have a slew of status inducing attacks, but other magic attacks will be able to inflict status effects as well (think fire giving a burn or ice freezing an enemy or giving them a cold). There will be varying status effects, some that may do the same thing (like HP loss), but some may be more damaging than others.

Interactivity
The game will feature tons of interaction outside of the plot. Instead of a world where things seem pretty lifeless or of little importance and just decoration, this world I am creating will be full of interaction where pressing the action/OK button will have the on screen character say something about an object, collect an item, or have conversations with an NPC. NPC conversations will never stay the same throughout the course of the game. As the plot progresses and situations change, NPC dialogue in older locations will change accordingly. So don't expect the same old conversations or hints to remain the whole way through the game. I want as much life as possible. A box may hide the most important material in the game for creating the ultimate weapon or armor, so interacting with objects is encouraged. Sometimes it'll just be character banter when you interact with an object, but that also adds personality and life to the game and its characters. I want the game to have more than a Point A to Point B style.

Armor's Usefulness
I'm going to try and make armor useful throughout the entire game. Often times you just upgrade to the next armor and the old one is money. Well, I want to try and make it to where armor will be useful all the time. Say I created a breastplate called Frigid Steel, meant to protect you from Freeze status and Ice magic. That armor will always be useful against any enemy that uses ice elemental attacks and/or induces freeze. I want to make it so the elemental attributes of your equipment makes a difference and must be taken into account.

So far that's what I remember having. MagCast will definitely bring some of my ideas back up that I may have missed. These are the big things I wanted to implement, and hopefully I can execute it well.

Any suggestions on what I could do extra to make my ideas above better, please post in this thread.